


Four Little Words

by AnnaOnTheMoon



Series: Based on the Books [3]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Books)
Genre: F/M, book canon, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 22:35:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12735681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaOnTheMoon/pseuds/AnnaOnTheMoon
Summary: The book Greater than the Sum starts with Beverly & Jean-Luc already married, and we get one small paragraph detailing their proposal.  Here is the story of their proposal.





	Four Little Words

**Author's Note:**

> The planet and its moons are made up, as are any non-canon personnel mentioned. The planet is based on research I’ve done into J1407 and pds 110. 
> 
> Bold text at the beginning is the paragraph from Greater Than The Sum.

**So finally, last month, in an idyllic glade on a habitable Jovian moon the ship had surveyed, with the giant ringed planet above them painting the night sky in vivid red-gold hues, he had popped the question and been equally surprised and relieved when she had readily said yes. And his new life had begun soon thereafter –** _Greater than the Sum_

###

Jean-Luc was relieved to finally get the chance to do some exploring.  After the most recent incident with the Borg, where he had had to be turned back into Locutus and watched as the new queen had nearly murdered Beverly before she had been able to neutralise the queen and rescue him in the process, and then losing Admiral Janeway to the Borg, a nice, leisure survey of the moons of a ringed planet that has rings to rival Saturn’s was in order not only for him, but for his crew as well.  After all, the purpose of the _Enterprise_ was exploration, not war.  Jean-Luc had had enough war for quite some time. 

Jean-Luc also was looking forward for some downtime with the love of his life,  Doctor and Commander  Beverly Crusher.  He had been in love with Beverly since well before she had been the wife of his best friend Jack, but it was the death of Jack over twenty-five years ago that had caused Jean-Luc to bury his feelings for Beverly for so long.  He told her once when they had been psychically linked on a planet called KesPrytt, but at the time Beverly hadn’t been ready for a relationship even though she had admitted her feelings for him, too.  It had taken Beverly’s near death at the hands of Romulans on Kevrata before Jean-Luc could not wait any longer and he had finally admitted his feelings for Beverly openly.  Beverly had left leaving Jean-Luc feeling as though he had lost his best friend forever, but then she returned to the _Enterprise_ several weeks later and told him she was in love with him, too.

The past five months hadn’t been easy for the couple.  Jean-Luc knew how much Beverly had hated having to transform Jean-Luc back into Locutus, possibly even more than Jean-Luc had hated having to be him again.  The night after she had removed all of the implants for the final time, they both had cried in each other’s arms in bed as they made love, reassuring each other that they were both fine...even if emotionally, it would take them several more weeks to fully be healed.

Jean-Luc opened the second drawer of the desk in his Ready Room and removed the various bits and pieces he kept in there -  spare pips, an extra communicator, a broken communicator,  bits of pottery from a long forgotten civilisation...and a small velvet box.  Nestled in the box was his mother’s ring -  a ring that had no stone, but was made of three kinds of metal twisted into each other forming a rose in the middle.  It was perfect and Jean-Luc had finally decided he was ready to ask Beverly to marry him and he felt this “easy” mission would be the perfect opportunity.  He only hoped she would agree.

Beverly was doing some reflecting of her own in her office in Sickbay.  She had just transmitted her final report on the removal of the Borg implants from Jean-Luc and she sat back and sighed . She had hated every minute of that conversion.  She understood and agreed with him that it was the best course of action at the time, but Beverly couldn’t help but wonder if she had allowed Jean-Luc to be modified into Locutus because she had been unable to say no to her lover.  She shook her head. No, she had been in love with Jean-Luc for many years and had never let her love for him to cloud her medical decisions...although....she thought back to the first incident with the Borg when the Borg first had created Locutus and how she had fought to have him brought back to her to fix...or when he had been captured by the Cardassians and she and Worf had returned to the _Enterprise_ without him, her a broken woman who refused to admit he could be dead...or when she actually had to declare him dead after finding his DNA splattered on the wall of a seedy bar.  She didn’t want to have to relive that any time soon. 

She was in love with Jean-Luc Picard. Blissfully and  completely in love.  She remembered Wesley had asked her when he first had found out about her and Jean-Luc being together if she was going to marry him, and she had told her son she would if he asked...trouble was...was he going to ask?  How long would he keep her waiting for those four little words ? They weren’t getting any younger.  Perhaps she could subtly nudge him in the right direction...

###

They played a few hands of poker with several members of the senior staff that evening before they both bowed out graciously.  Beverly had gently tapped Jean-Luc on the knee under the table just before she let out a fake yawn.  Jean-Luc pretended to yawn and suggested the two of them retire for the evening, leaving the “younger ones” to their game.  Jean-Luc rested a hand on Beverly’s back and guided her out of the room.  It was no secret to anyone that the two of them were together, but he still did not like to put their relationship on display.  But once they were alone in the turbolift, all bets were off and he pulled her into a close embrace.  He nuzzled at her neck and whispered “I love you” into her ear. 

“I love you, too.  You’re being mighty affectionate this evening. Mind you, I’m not complaining.”  Jean-Luc grinned against her neck. “You just looked so delicious tonight.”  He nipped at her neck.  “I wanted to get you alone an hour ago!” 

“Jean-Luc, you should have said!”  Beverly let her hands roam over Jean-Luc’s back as she tilted her neck to give him more access.

“What was I supposed to say? ‘Excuse me, I need to ravish the love of my life?’”  He licked his way down her neck until he was stopped by the high neckline of her uniform.  He slipped a hand behind her neck to unzip the collar.  It didn’t give him much more access, but he was able to continue his ministrations with his tongue.  Beverly let out a low moan before saying,  “Well, it would have been fun to see the look on Worf’s face if you said that!”  Jean-Luc laughed into her neck.

The turbolift slowed as it arrived at their deck and Beverly reached back to rezip her turtleneck in case they saw anyone in the corridor.  She pressed a kiss to the corner of Jean-Luc’s mouth just before the lift doors opened to the empty corridor.  They hastened their way to their cabin and as soon as the door slid shut behind them their hands were once again on each other as they quickly removed each other’s clothing.  Jean-Luc picked up Beverly in his strong arms, causing her to laugh as he carried her into the bedroom and laid her down on their bed.  “You are so beautiful. My _belle_.  My Beverly.” 

“I love you, Jean-Luc.  I want you.” That was all the permission Jean-Luc needed. “I love you, too.”

###

Jean-Luc looked around the conference room table.  Many unfamiliar faces where he expected to see old friends, but he still had Worf, Geordi, and of course, Beverly by his side.  Some of these people had been serving on the Enterprise for several  years already, so he was somewhat familiar with them, and he hoped this mission could help to solidify things.  This was the hardest part for any starship  Captain – trying to get  group of strangers to gel. He had the added problem of having had half of his previously new command staff declaring mutiny on him during the Borg incursion.  He offered transfers to anyone who wanted one, and surprisingly all but his Second Officer, Miranda Kadohata, had taken him up on the offer.  If all else failed, he would call back his old friend Guinan.  She had a knack for getting people to find common ground.  He smiled to himself as he thought just how old his friendship with Guinan was before activating the screen behind his head.

“Our new mission is to explore the moons of a ringed gas giant only known as G284.  The planet appears to have twenty-one moons, all designated as G284-A, B, C, and so forth.  Our goal is to explore all fourteen.  Long-range scans show that none have life other than plant life, but as you all know, long-range scanners have been wrong before.  We think at least five of the moons may be class M, and those are the moons we will be spending the most time on. Any questions?”

His new security chief, Lieutenant Jasminder Choudhury,  spoke up.  “Sir, will we be sending away teams down to the moons?”

“Yes.  Preliminary scouting teams will contain one member of the medical staff, one member of the science staff, one member of the command staff, and at least two security members.  Once we have established a moon to be safe, we will beam down additional teams and send shuttles down with surveying equipment.  Please create a schedule to rotate your staff...all of you.  While I understand the temptation is to be on the landing party yourself...trust me, I understand all too well...I would like to see a decent rotation of staff.” Worf opened his mouth to speak. “Before you say anything, Number One, _yes_ I will be going on some of the away teams.” 

“Sir, at least let me assign you a personal security member.”

“Number One, these moons are uninhabited, but if it will make you feel better...fine. “ Worf sat back and crossed his arms in satisfaction.  Lieutenant  Choudhury spoke up. “With all due respect, Commander, _I_ am the head of security and _I_ will decide how many members of staff we send down.”

Worf narrowed his eyes at the woman.  “And _my_ job as First Officer is to ensure the safety of its Captain.” Jean-Luc held up his hand for them to stop.  “I’m sorry, Lieutenant.  Of course, we will go with your recommendations, however, Commander Worf is correct that my safety is his responsibility.  I need the two of you to work together on this.”

“Yes, Sir. Sir, I’d like to recommend we also assign a member of security to the medical staff.”  Lieutenant Choudhury grinned to herself.  Of course, the Captain would be all in favour of her recommendation since it would mean keeping Doctor Crusher safe.  Jean-Luc exchanged a glance with Beverly, who shook her head at him, before responding.  “Lieutenant, I appreciate your offer in protecting Doctor Crusher, but you should know Doctor Crusher is more than capable of taking care of herself.  With two security members assigned to each away team, plus either Worf or myself, I think we will have the security needs of the away team well in hand.”

Lieutenant Choudhury hung her head.  “Aye, Sir.  Do we know what the atmosphere or temperature of these moons will be?”

“Not until we get close enough to scan them ourselves.  The long-range scans only give us minimal information. We will likely need to wear EVA suits on some of the planets.”  There were groans heard around the table.  No one liked wearing the EVA suits, Jean-Luc included.

“Mister Data....” he trailed off and looked down at his hands.  Beverly reached a hand out and squeezed his upper arm.  It was so easy to fall back into his old habits.  “I’m sorry, Commander Kadohata.”

Miranda Kadohata looked up at Jean-Luc and smiled. “It’s alright, Captain. I’ve been called worse.” 

“Commander Kadohata, estimated time until arrival at G284?”  Miranda consulted the PADD in front of her.  “Ten days at warp 5, Sir.”

“We have ten days to prepare.  Number One, set course for G284.  Dismissed.”  Jean-Luc watched as the newer crew members filed out until he was left with Beverly, Worf, and Geordi.  In a rare vulnerable moment around his  trusted friends, he rested his head in his hands. “I can’t believe I did that.” 

Geordi rested a reassuring hand on Jean-Luc’s shoulder. “We all miss him, Captain.  It’s natural.  And now without B-4 on board...it’s like Data is really  gone.” 

“Thank you, Geordi. I think that’s exactly what my problem might be.  I kept expecting we would work some miracle and retrieve Data from B-4 so I never truly accepted he was gone...and he sacrificed himself for me....I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”  He looked around at his old friends. “Enough wool gathering. Let us be on our way.”  Jean-Luc stood to indicate their impromptu meeting was over, but Beverly knew better.  After Worf and Geordi had filed out she drew him into her arms and gave him a gentle kiss.  “We can talk later if you want.” 

“Thank you, my love. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life.”  Beverly grinned. This was the opportunity she was looking for. “Well, then you’ll just have to make sure I’m always in your life, won’t you?”  She seemed to float out of the room, her labcoat billowing behind her as Jean-Luc watched her leave and wondered if she had just told him she wanted to marry him.

###

The next ten days were busy for the crew as they worked on making rotation lists for the away teams and were put through additional training.  Worf was hesitant to assign the Captain and Doctor to the same away team, but he also knew they would maintain an air of professionalism and wouldn’t let their relationship interfere if there was a problem.  After more consideration, Worf decided the Captain would actually be safer on an away team with Beverly, as he was likely to be with her and then they would have two members of security covering them.  Worf really would like to beam down himself with the Captain, but he resigned himself to assigning Lieutenant Choudhury to those teams.

Beverly was busy prepping Sickbay. Not only would she have one person down on the moons at all times with away teams, but she wanted to prepare her staff in the event of any injuries or infections.  She went over quarantine protocol just in case there was anything airborne and she made sure all her tricorders were in working order. 

Jean-Luc was, predictably, walking the decks. They weren’t going into battle, but it was a familiar routine he liked to do even if they were only going on an exploratory mission.  He paused in all departments checking in on his crew and he hoped it helped to boost morale.  He felt as though everyone was looking forward to this mission, as most of them had wanted to be assigned to the _Enterprise_ for exploration. 

He paused outside of Sickbay and glanced inside and watched Beverly work.  She really was beautiful, and he felt grateful she had finally accepted his love.  Beverly looked up, saw him, and smiled.

“Hey there.” She walked over and gave him a quick kiss. “Come to take me to Lunch?” 

“If you’re free.”  He held out his hand to her.

“For you? Always.  By the way, you need to come in for your physical.  I’m having physicals conducted on everyone assigned to the away teams.” Jean-Luc groaned.  Beverly smiled. “Hey, but at least I can do it.”  Jean-Luc grumbled.  “Fine. Let’s get it over with. Wouldn’t want my CMO to tell me I can’t go on an away team.”   

He let Beverly lead him over into a private examination room and when the door was shut he was surprised when Beverly pulled him into a passionate kiss.  “ Take your clothes off.” Jean-Luc raised his eyebrows.  “Can’t do your physical if you have your clothes on...” She reached for the zip on his jacket.  “Is that the only reason you want me to take off my clothes?”  Beverly smiled sweetly and yanked down his zipper. “Hmm, if this is how you perform all your physicals, we might have to have a discussion about your bedside manner...”  He gave her a kiss as she continued to pull off his clothes. 

“I don’t see you complaining...”

“Will the good doctor be removing her clothes as well?”  Jean-Luc sat on the edge of the biobed, now shirtless and pulled Beverly towards him.  When she was standing between his legs he pushed her labcoat off her shoulders.

“Mm, I don’t think you’re going to have your physical right now....”

Jean-Luc was lying on the biobed with Beverly half on top of him.  He brushed her hair away from her cheek and placed a gentle kiss on it. “Was the physical just an excuse to get me naked in here?”

“Perhaps. Though, you really _do_ need a physical. “ Beverly slid off his body and started gathering her clothing. 

“Well, I’m naked, might as well do it now.”  Beverly chuckled.  “I suppose I might as well take advantage of the situation.”

“Beverly, I think you already did that.” 

###

They finally arrived at G284 and everyone took a moment to gaze at the giant ringed planet on the view screen.  It really was magnificent.   The gas giant had rings that went on for well over 1000KM. 

“Sir, scans are showing more moons than we had been aware of.” 

“How many, Ensign?”

“Sixty-six? That can’t be right. Let me rescan....”  The Ensign nervously pressed buttons at her station, not wanting to make a mistake.  “Sir, I’m still seeing sixty-six moons.”  Jean-Luc moved over to the science station the young Ensign from Stellar Cartography was looking at and peered over her shoulder.  “No, Ensign.  You are seeing sixty-six moons.  Our previous information led us to believe there were only twenty-one moons.  This is going to be a much larger project that we previously anticipated.” 

He gathered his senior staff in the conference room.  “Previous reports indicated twenty-one moons, however we have discovered sixty-six. This is going to require extra time surveying the planets and we will skip sending away teams to any non-M class moons.” 

“Sir, how will we designate the moons?  We will run out of alphabet after twenty-six.”

“Ah, a very good question, Lieutenant.  And this is why I have invited Commander Malcolm of Stellar Cartography to join us.”  A small woman with long blonde hair stood up.  “Thank you, Captain.”  Jean-Luc took his seat at the head of the table and indicated for the woman to continue. “The first twenty-six moons we find will receive the designations G284-A1 through G284-Z26, the next twenty-six will be known as G284-A27 through G284-Z52 and so forth.  The sixty-sixth moon will be known as G284-M66.  We will need to map out their locations and label them before anyone can survey the surfaces.” Jean-Luc nodded.  It would make sense to have an accurate location of all of the moons before they began surveying, even if it would take extra time.

“And how long will that take, Commander?”

“Ten hours, possibly Twelve.”

“Make it so.  It seems we have some more time on our hands before we can start exploring.  Dismissed.  We will reconvene at  0900.”

Jean-Luc sat back in his chair as the staff filed out – all except for Beverly.  “Well, this is exciting.”

“Indeed, but also a bit anticlimactic as we now have to wait until tomorrow  and won’t be exploring all the planets.  Although I, for one, am relieved to not have to wear an EVA suit.” 

“Me too. I really hate those things.  I know they are a lot tighter than they were over 400 years ago, but they’re still cumbersome.”

“Indeed.  But I was looking forward to helping you remove your suit.”  Beverly lightly smacked his arm. “ _Captain!_ ”

“ _Doctor!”_

“Jean-Luc, that was positively scandalous of you.”  Beverly licked her lips.  She really did like this side of Jean-Luc.  He was a lot more playful and forward than she had expected.  Not to mention how passionate he was.  “There’s going to be a concert this evening in the lounge at 2000.  Will’s old Jazz ensemble found a new trombonist.  Shall we go?”

“That sounds like an excellent idea, my love.”

Jazz music was not Jean-Luc’s favourite style of music, but he enjoyed watching Beverly’s face as she listened along.  Her leg was bouncing along to the beat and he could tell she was just itching to get up and dance, but out of preference to him, she chose not to.  Jean-Luc stood up and held out a hand to Beverly. “Would you like to dance?”  Beverly looked at him incredulously.  “Do you know how to dance to this music?”

“Errr....No, but with you as my guide, I’m sure I’ll pick it up.”

“Hmm.  We need to spend more time in your Dixon Hill holonovels.  I’m sure he must have cut a rug with a pretty girl once in a while...”

“Then I shall do my best to be Dixon Hill for you, Dollface.”  Beverly laughed.  “Well, that’s a start.”

To Beverly’s delight, Jean-Luc had picked up the quick tempo quickly by observing the other dancers and soon was spinning her around the dance floor.  The band switched to a slow ballad and Jean-Luc held her close.  He whispered in her ear, “I love you, Beverly.”  She whispered back, “I love you, too.”  Jean-Luc was unaware of the looks of the rest of the crew and if he had seen them he would have been embarrassed, but fortunately he only had eyes for Beverly. 

Over in a corner, two Ensigns were watching and whispering to each other. “How long have they been married?” 

“Ages, I’m sure.  My brother went to the academy with their son.” 

“I didn’t know they had a son.”

“He isn’t in Starfleet anymore.  He travels or something.”

“Oh.  Well, the Captain and the Doctor look very much in love.”

Rachel put her arm around Laika’s shoulder and gave her girlfriend a kiss.  “Someday, that will be us.”

Jean-Luc displayed a rare public show of affection when he tilted his head and gently kissed Beverly’s lips before whispering in her ear “Are you ready to retire for the night?”  Beverly nodded.  Jean-Luc and Beverly quietly slipped out of the lounge.  Back in their quarters,  Beverly and Jean-Luc headed to bed where they just held each other and basked in their mutual love. 

###

Sixty-six moons.  If Jean-Luc authorised a day per moon, that would take the ship over two months to complete the survey.  However, at this point they weren’t sure which moons would be class M and how many of those would be worth spending more than a few hours on.  For all he knew, it could take more than a day to fully explore some of the moons.  Jean-Luc finally decided they would have to take it one moon at a time, and make decisions based on the reports of the initial landing party. 

The first two moons were uninhabitable, and the survey of those two moons took less than five hours.  The next moon, G285-C3 turned out to hold a class M environment, as did D4 and E5. It was shaping up to be a long mission. Not that Jean-Luc was going to complain about it, but he did worry about getting everything done before Stafleet needed them for something else.  On the other hand, being so far out it would take a while for any messages to reach them.  Jean-Luc had sent his initial report detailing his plans for exploring the now 66 moons and so far there had been no objections. 

He finally got to step foot on moon H8.  H8 was an impressive, but rocky planet with little to no plantlife to speak of. A few plants Beverly compared to the Alpen plants found in mountainous areas of Earth that did not need much in the way of soil to take hold.  The survey was completed all too soon, and Jean-Luc returned to the ship waiting for his next opportunity. 

The crew soon settled into a pattern.  Arrive in orbit around moon, quick survey.  If it was class M, organise an away team, if it wasn’t, detailed scans before moving onto the next moon.   Even though they were exploring, many of the crew started to get restless as while many of the moons had a clas M atmosphere, they were rocky and cold.  Beverly and her staff dealt with more instances of frostbite than anything else as many of the crew were ill prepared for the hours spent down on the cold moons and disregarded the suggestions to wear thermals. 

Finally, M34 revealed itself  to be a green moon.  The tides seemed to turn and the closer they moved towards the moons close in orbit to G284, the better the moons were in terms of weather and plant life.  Beverly even thought the waters on J36 might even contain microorganisms.  Beverly, excited for the chance to examine a new life form, quickly gathered a sample and took it back to her lab. 

They hit a slump as K37 – T46 all were non class M, but then things brightened up a bit and they seemed to find habitable moons a bit more frequently.  Jean –Luc was with the team surveying K63 when he had a revelation as he was standing in a glade, surrounded by trees that appeared to be similar to the Fir trees.  Overhead, the sky was streaked with stripes of red and orange from the rings of G284.  This, this was the spot. 

He beamed back up to the _Enterprise_ and made his way to his office, quickly grabbing what he needed before swinging by Sickbay.  Beverly was working in her lab, but Jean-Luc had convinced her to take a break and come with him down to the moon.  He told her he wanted to show her something special. 

They beamed down directly to the glade and Beverly glanced around.  The lush green moss created a carpet under their feet and the towering trees seemed to touch the rings of the planet.  She turned around to look at Jean-Luc, and to her immense surprise he was kneeling. 

“Beverly.  My love, my light, my life.  I wish nothing more than to spend what remaining time we have in this universe with you by my side as my wife.  Beverly, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the galaxy?”  He slowly slipped the ring onto her finger and as Beverly admired it, she said the one word he was longing to hear.  “Yes.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Note: As of 15/11/2017 I am on holiday until 1/12/2017! I promise more P/C to come in December! (and I don't leave for 6 days, so you know, there still might be one sneaking in!)


End file.
